Meditation of the Heart (Yaconelli) Day 4

These meditation/contemplation prompts from Mark Yaconelli are hard for me to do because I have to really settle into personal ‘spaces’ I usually try to avoid. Today’s focus is on fear. One of the meditations texts is from Teresa of Avila “Let nothing disturb you; Let nothing make you afraid; All things pass.”

The sentence “Let nothing make you afraid” is echoing in my head like the incessant lapping ocean waves upon the shoreline. “Let nothing make you afraid”. It doesn’t say don’t have fear, or don’t be afraid, or even don’t run from your fear. It says let nothing MAKE you afraid. I take that to mean I have some choice is how I interpret an event or an interaction whereby I can either give away my agency or hold onto my sense of self objectively. I could sort of stare down what is threatening to make me afraid and decide how to react. With my past behind me, I am now trying to look back over my lifetime and see the times I’ve let something make me afraid. (too many for my own good, I think)

Yaconelli leads us to Isaiah 43:1 “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you” and; he suggests we insert our own name.

But now thus says the Lord,
God who created you, O Jacob Fa,
the Holy Birther who formed you, O Israel Child of My Heart:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.

But what does it mean to be redeemed? Instead of the legalistic sin-satisfaction theory, I’d like to consider one of the other definitions for redeemed, such as:

“todischargeorfulfill(apledge,promise,) or “tomakeupfor;makeamendsfor;offset(somefault,shortcoming,etc.)”

The promise that God made to Abram is that if Abram would agree, they would enter an exclusive covenant relationship. Therefore, Isaiah is saying God would fulfill that promise in redeeming Abram (and if God would also redeem me, then God would promise to be in a covenant relationship with me too).

Or, to make amends for me would be to make up the ways that I fall short. That God would cover the gap in places that I fail to be enough or do enough; in that way God would redeem me. If I could count on this kind of ‘coverage’ then I could be more consistent in not letting anything MAKE me afraid.